Thought I should add for anyone who wanted to try massages for the first time on their cruise, plan it so you will not have been drinking alcohol before hand. Just plenty of water. Otherwise you may leave the massage reeling instead of floating.

what many people do not realize is that a GOOD massage will release toxins stored in your muscles (sometimes for a long time) into your bloodstream, and you can even feel a little sick after a good massage.

Sometimes I have to go to bed after one, or I just feel achy.

If you feel woozy and achy after a massage it generally means it was a good massage - but the water is very important because it washes those toxins out of your system. You will feel a lot better when you wake up.

I always seem to run out of time on sea days on Seabourn. It is not that the days are jam packed with things to do, it is that you are put into a sort of "kick back and Seabourn takes care of me" mode.

There are some differences between the smaller and larger ships, but for the most part a sea day on either can consist of a leisurely breakfast al fresco or, more formally, in The Restaurant followed by a morning lecture or soak in a whirlpool with a Bloody Mary or champagne and then, fully relaxed, a trip to the spa...or even a complimentary 10 minute Massage Moment on deck.

After a late morning siesta, book or chat, a nice lunch is served followed by a cooking demonstration and the blood sport of Trivia.

There is a conflict later in the afternoon between High Tea (awesome scones and wonderful loose tea varieties...as well as finger sandwiches, etc.) and that second soak in the whirlpool with champagne. A later afternoon lecture is usually available. Bridge is usually also organized. Speaking of bridge, bridge tours are offered.

On most cruises there is a Galley Market Lunch which is an incredible feast which on the smaller ships is set up in the Galley. On the larger ships that isn't really practical, but it is still quite an event in the Restaurant.

All of this is followed by cocktails and a chat at the Sky Bar, then after getting ready for dinner, drinks in The Club followed by dinner and then an evening show and/or dancing, casino, etc.

I was about to say I must be the "odd one out" until I read that Trip also has never had a massage. To be perfectly honest, I couldnt think of anything worse! Just absolutely hate the idea of all the stuff they do to you in those spas! Mud on the face, fruit stuck in your eyes instead of in your drink, bloody lumps of hot rock stuck on your back....no thanks! :???: So I am pretty sure I will never spend anytime in a Seabourn spa! I am also just as sure I will never spend any time in a Seabourn gym!! I have sailed ummmmm about 170 days and have NEVER even peeped inside the gym! Hubby did once.....took the luggage to get weighed.....

I LOVE sea days.....these are the best part of our cruises. This is when we can really relax and do almost nothing! We love it when we have 4 or 5 sea days in a row....doesnt happen very often.
We never sleep late, but have a long leisurely breakfast in the Dining room.....we may go to a lecture or cooking demo etc....or just visit the library and grab another book...sometimes we play trivia....sometimes not. By then its time for lunch....then usually back to the suite to read and snooze...sometimes we manage to fit in afternoon tea, (the bread pudding is very good). Some days we might spend the afternoon in the Observation Lounge, hubby reads and snoozes and I might sew or knit or use my computer to write my blog...then it must be about time for a bubble bath before getting ready for dinner! Dinner is again usually long and leisurely and quite often we are still there at 10pm....
For us, the more sea days the better! I have just counted up how many sea days we have on our next cruise....27!! Then we also have a few places we go to more than once, so some of those we will just stay on the ship and treat as a "sea day" too......cant wait!

Trivia can be fun if you have the "right" group. We usually have a great time, but have had the occasional pain in the butt person on our team. One cruise, we were about to throw one member off our team as he spoilt the whole day with his cut throat attitude, it was just ridiculous how he carried on....we were playing for a bloody book mark for heavens sake, not a bloody cattle station!! Anyway he got the hint and behaved. We did threaten to throw him overboard if he EVER got an answer wrong.....he shut up a lot more then!
We were told however on a cruise, who NEVER to have on your team because of this sick sort of attitude......the name starts with D...ends in N...and has an A in the middle!! Apparently a lot of people think he is a real joke (or is that jerk?) at Trivia!

We always get a lot of laughs from those who dont know, when they come up with great answers!

Last cruise we had a question something like "Who was the main character in the book "A Missionary Position".....of course all our minds went in the wrong direction....but my husband said "Mother Theresa"...one of our team who is "overly" religious was horrified...."we cant say that!!!" So instead we put "Linda Lovelace".....Mother Theresa was correct!!

Let us know what it is that you are curious, interested or otherwise want to know about and we will do our best to answer them and create some interesting discussion. (I won't be responding until after the New York Jets game today, but I will answer.)

Those who like or need to be entertained a lot, obviously should take more care with the cruise itinerary they book, and chose one with a lot of ports and on a larger ship that caters for more entertaining. We dont need any of that so the sea days are the perfect way for us to relax and do nothing....well other than eat and sleep! So the more sea days the better. Even though hubby has been retired now for 5 years, we still seem to be too damn busy, never have enough time to do what we have to do, so for us a cruise is the time we DONT have to do anything.
On our first cruise we had 5 sea days in a row....one women complained bitterly to me about it....said she would go stir crazy....do you think she read the itinerary properly? We had no idea how we would feel about 5 sea days in a row, as we had NEVER been on a cruise before, but at least we had read the itineray so had no reason to complain.
We are lucky there are so many ships out there to choose from......something for everybody!